Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Hulman Center in Terre Haute or Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne will be the site of the 2011 IHSAA girls basketball state championship games.
Dave Patterson, executive director of the Terre Haute Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, said IHSAA officials visited Hulman Center on Tuesday. Fort Wayne won last year’s bid over Muncie and Bloomington. Patterson said his office worked with the ISU Foundation and Hulman Center to place a bid, and only Terre Haute and Fort Wayne submitted bids this year. Patterson did not confirm the financial details.
“We’ve done a lot of things to create a unique experience,” Patterson said.
The state finals for the four classes became available due to a scheduling conflict. The Big Ten Conference women’s basketball tournament is in Conseco Fieldhouse, the site of the girls state finals from 2001-2008, the same weekend as the IHSAA.
Terre Haute was the site of a semistate in the last year of Indiana’s single-class boys basketball tournament in 1997, and Patterson said the city’s bid included some details that were similar to the presentation offered for that tournament.
“We used that model,” Patterson said, “and we thought we had an incredible semistate.”
An IHSAA committee will meet to make a decision tonight.
